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Why won’t the Democrats impeach President Bush?

For the last few years, the President, as we all know, has been accused by Democrats of all sorts of underhanded, nefarious, “illegal” actions. The “Impeach Bush” site lists the following:

Summary of Known Impeachable Offenses

Bush lied to Congress and the American public about the reasons for invading Iraq.
Bush conducted illegal wiretaps of American citizens.
Bush violated the Geneva Convention by torturing prisoners of war.
Bush violated International Law by invading a sovereign country for illegal purposes.
Bush held prisoners without formal charges and without legal representation.

Now, I know you won’t find the names of anyone from Congress on that page, but House Judiciary Chair John Conyers (who admitted to ethics violations at the end of the year last year but has not been punished by the House leadership) has been one of many Democrats who has been salivating for years at the prospect of impeaching the President and even introduced, back in December of 2005, a resolution to begin impeachment proceedings – a resolution that was co-sponsored by 38 House Democrats. He introduced this knowing it wouldn’t go anywhere at the time, because the House was controlled by Republicans. He and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi both tried to claim prior to the 2006 elections that they would “not” be impeaching President Bush, even though they are two of many Democrats who have accused the President of at least one, if not more, of what the Impeach Bush site has accused the President of doing.

If she were not in the House–and not Speaker of the House–Nancy Pelosi says she “would probably advocate” impeaching President Bush.

But given her current role as party leader, at a breakfast with progressive journalists today (named after our great friend Maria Leavey) Pelosi sketched her case against impeachment.

“The question of impeachment is something that would divide the country,” Pelosi said this morning during a wide-ranging discussion in the ornate Speaker’s office. Her top priorities are ending the war in Iraq, expanding health care, creating jobs and preserving the environment. “I know what our success can be on those issues. I don’t know what our success can be on impeaching the president.”

Slick, Nancy, real slick. What’s she’s really saying here is that she’s not going to pursue impeaching the man who is supposedly guilty of lying to the American people in order to wage war and who is also supposedly guilty of spying on Americans for political purposes because there’s no support for it in the polls – and she and Democrats want to retain their power instead.

But she’d advocate it if she was a Senator, because in the Senate she wouldn’t have to worry about backlash from the Nutroots for not following through because the Senate is not where impeachment proceedings start, and she knows it.

In summary, the woman who vowed to ‘clean up Washington, DC’ would rather Democrats stay in power than to impeach a president for offenses they feel are, well, impeachable.

C’mon, whaddaya expect, honesty, integrity, and courage? From a pol? A Dem, at that?

Be certain that were Pelosi in the Senate and not the house, she’d have another reason why it isn’t expedient to push for impeachment. The real reason is even she knows it’s a nonstarter and would likely blow up in her face, as well as prevent the Dems from implementing their real agenda (and for that reason I might support them trying to impeach!). Whether it’s the right or wrong thing to do is not even on the table.